


and a cruel wind's blowing cold

by Slinky (Golbez)



Series: a past and future secret [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, POV Gaster, POV Second Person, Time Travel, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, some headcanons on the pre-underground monsters are mentioned but arent very important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 15:22:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5095589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Slinky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The humans are attacking, what do you do? Put your skeleton nephews in a time machine, send them to the future, and hope for the best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and a cruel wind's blowing cold

**Author's Note:**

> Undertale is like one big anti-writer's block hammer holy cow???
> 
> In any case, this fic isn't meant to be a theory, but simply a fun what if that came to me while I was thinking about pre-Underground monsters. I wrote it pretty quickly so not only is it mostly unedited it also probably contradicts a few canon things. It was fun to think and write about though, so I might write more about this particular verse? Who knows.
> 
> Regarding Gaster's dialogue, I'm using the 'signs with hands, broadcasts spoken words' kind of thing.
> 
> The title is taken from the excellent Blind Guardian song, _Blood Tears_.

You have a wrench in your hand and an unfinished machine in front of you when the power goes out.

That's okay. You ignore the lack of power, ignore the screaming and other sounds of chaos picking up outside, and continue to work.

Within seconds you hear the front door open and slam shut, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps. The machine is so much taller than you, and it blocks whatever little sunlight filters into your home, but still, even with the weak light, you work.

"Gaster."

You keep your gaze on the machine before you, ignoring the familiar voice behind you as you finish another section. There's more parts to add, though thankfully the essential areas are long done. You just need to ensure the machine will survive its trip.

A hand comes down on your shoulder, startling you.

"S-Sans," you sign. The elder of your two charges steps into your view, coming to stand by the machine. He's in his uniform, but it's heavily in disarray. The trainee badge stuck to his shirt is barely hanging on, and long white streaks stain his pants and sleeves. You look between him and the wrench in your other hand.

"Gaster, we gotta get out of here," he says, reaching out and gently prying the wrench away. "The humans are attacking."

You are not very surprised by this. The humans have been very persistent, and it was only a matter of time that they would break the defenses of this half-finished city. You look up at Sans, a pleading look over his face, and an idea forms in your mind.

"Go collect your brother," you tell him, "Come back here right away."

There is no time to finish the machine, not like this. There is no time to test it either. You turn back to it regardless, and, once you hear Sans hurry out of the room with an exasperated noise, you reach for the machine's power socket and touch your hand to it.

It will take all your magic to power it. You throw everything you have at it, praying for it to work. The machine shudders once, but doesn't power up, the small screen on its front remaining dark. _No, damn you,_ you think, and you feel your body protesting when you pour more and more magic into the machine.

You feel something in you give, and then the machine comes to life, the screen glowing a harsh blue in your darkened home. You thankfully do not unravel from the sheer amount of magic you had just used up.

You have a little time still. With what little magic you have left you summon a pen and paper and have it transcribe a letter. You gather a few other things - blueprints and photos, a book or two - from your desk and you're in the middle of hiding them inside the machine when you hear Sans return.

"Okay Gaster," he says, "We have to go _now_."

You face him, and take in the sight of both your wards. Sans is carrying Papyrus in one arm and balancing an open satchel of toys on the other. The much smaller skeleton is wrapped in a blanket and staring at you with wide, inquisitive eyes.

"Where we go?" asks Papyrus.

This is no time to hesitate. "Somewhere safe," you sign to him, then you stride over to them and pull them both into a hug, Papyrus snugly between yourself and Sans. Neither say anything, perhaps picking up on the nervousness running through every bone in you.

Your house shakes, the walls creaking in protest at the sudden movement. The screaming outside becomes muffled. You release them.

"You're planning something," says Sans, and you hear the accusation loud and clear.

You nod and place your hands on his shoulders, then you start ushering him towards the machine. He lets you steer him, and you suspect he knows already what you have in mind for him and his brother.

"Gaster, this machine isn't tested."

"I know," you tell him. You take Papyrus from him for a moment, and the child immediately starts squirming in his blanket. It's only when you rest your forehead against his that he calms down. It lasts only a few seconds, but it's long enough for Sans to set aside the bag of toys and clamber into the machine. He thankfully manages to fit, reclining on the single seat inside.

"You can't know for sure if it'll work," he says, watching you with a resigned look as you approach.

"I know." You lower Papyrus onto Sans, who promptly reaches up to hug his brother, securing him into place. You reach around Sans and pull at the strip of leather dangling there beside the seat.

"We can still get to the safe house if we leave now." He sighs as you buckle him in, and Papyrus keeps asking again and again, _what happening?_

"I know." With your wards safely in the machine, you circle around to the front.

"...Papyrus and I could die."

You stop with your hand hovering over the buttons under the screen.

"Gaster. We can still leave."

Your house shudders again, and you hear shouts, screams, from closer than before. The humans are coming. Sans is right. You can still leave, you can take him and his baby brother out of the machine and you can grab everything and run. You will not have much time, but there's a chance. You can make it to the Queen's safe house.

You look at your wards. Papyrus will grow up knowing only war, and Sans...Sans is so young, but already hurt. You hate to think what a life of war would do to him. You think of their parents for a moment, your sister and her husband, falling before your eyes in the invasion of the first city.

This war can't last forever.

You have a time machine that you aren't sure will work, but damn you if you don't even try to send these kids to a time of peace.

"Take care, you two," you sign out to them, and press a button.

"Wait - " Sheets of metal slide into place, cutting Sans off as they shield him and Papyrus from the world. You hesitate as you set the amount of time the machine would jump forward. Surely the war would be over in a few decades?

The house shakes, and this time so does the floor. You lose your balance and your fingers slap against several buttons as you stumble and scrabble for support. You land on the ground anyway, and look up just in time to see the number on the screen jump up by a few thousand years.

You watch in horror as the machine activates. You scramble onto your knees and lunge for it, to override the activation sequence, change the time, anything -

You collide with the floor where the machine had previously stood.

What have you done?

***

Miraculously, you survive. 

You almost don't, and a large part of you truly wishes you hadn't. But you survive. You survive the onslaught on the city you once called home. You survive the battles after that, fleeing with fellow civilians into safe house after safe house, each provided by the Queen.

One day, decades after the attack, the Queen falls. Asgore, the princess Toriel's husband, takes his place as King. It's not many years after that you are driven underground. The humans cast their magic and you soon find Home.

You swiftly establish yourself as a scientist, one of the few who survived. You work, and work, and work some more. Sometimes you teach. Mostly you work.

You tell no one what you did with Sans and Papyrus. Everyone who knows them believes they fell in the invasion, or are dead themselves. The years stretch on, and on. Monsterkind recovers, adjusts to life in the Underground, expands. When Asgore seeks out volunteers to explore the Underground with him, you are quick to follow. You traverse over ice and water and fire and come to New Home.

You wonder everyday which set of caverns Sans and Papyrus will like the most.

You build the Core.

And then you fall into your creation.

***

You are at once alive and you are at once dead. You exist outside time yet you are bound to its whim. You exist outside space, yet you are scattered across it. You are whole and you are broken, you are yourself and you are not. 

You stand at the beginning of time, you stand at the end.

You no longer exist, yet pieces of your soul live on within time. They settle into the timelines and form monsters who know of you, but they cannot hear or see you.

You watch the timelines shift and change.

And then you feel something rip through time and space, feel the timeline parting and reshaping itself around a sudden change.

You see the end of your work. You see the beginning of a new life.

You see Sans and Papyrus arrive in the Underground.

***

The machine appears atop a snowdrift a considerable distance from Snowdin. Its return to the timeline creates ripples that are and were important, but for now what truly matters are the loud thuds ringing out from it. A metal sheet flies off in the next moment, and you watch Sans emerge, holding Papyrus close to himself with one arm. 

The cold is nothing for them, but Sans hugs Papyrus to himself and sits down on the snow with his back against the now broken machine. They stay like that for a while, until Papyrus grows restless and starts to untangle himself from the blanket, and you watch as Sans stands and sets his brother down.

"Guess we should get going, huh?" he says.

"Where are we, Sans?" asks Papyrus, and already he's regained his energy and looks ready to explore everything. Sans reaches over and takes his hand.

"Time to find out," answers Sans.

They make it to Snowdin hand in hand.

You feel every bit of your soul, scattered as it is, warm at the sight of Snowdin welcoming your charges with open arms. You had not even realized you could still feel, and the realization is furthered when sorrow overwhelms you as you watch Sans ask for you and search your name only to find you'd fallen out of existence. Joy claims pieces of you when Papyrus grows and grows and finds only happiness in all things in his life.

You are at once alive and you are at once dead. You do not exist, not as you once did. But your nephews are safe and they will be key in the freeing of monsters, and they will lead lives untainted by a war that consumed so, so many.

Sans will have to grow up quickly. Papyrus will have his troubles making friends. Sans found solace in others. Papyrus was loved by all. A human was, is, will be their death and their savior.

You are broken and you are whole. You resign yourself to your fate.

You can do nothing else for now.


End file.
